Exposing Institutional Discrimination Against Transgender Youth Under Trump Administration

BRONX, N.Y. - April 20, 2025 - PRLog -- The Think Tank at The Thinkubator has released a timely and urgent policy brief titled Counteracting Institutional Discrimination: Evaluating the Trump Administration's LGBTQ+ Policies and their Impact on Transgender Athletes. The report provides a rigorous analysis of federal executive actions taken under Donald J. Trump's second term that target transgender individuals, particularly youth, through restrictions in sports participation, healthcare access, and legal gender recognition.

Grounded in legal analysis, public health research, and educational policy, the brief presents new evidence of the disproportionate harm caused by Executive Orders 14168 and 14201. These actions eliminated federal recognition of nonbinary identities and barred transgender women and girls from participating in women's sports across federally funded schools.

"This policy brief is a call to conscience and a call to action," said Desiree Herrington, CEO and Board Chair of The Thinkubator. "We are witnessing a coordinated rollback of civil rights for LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly transgender youth. These measures are not about fairness in sports. They are about power, exclusion, and using federal policy to enforce cultural erasure."

The brief highlights findings from The Trevor Project, HRC, and the U.S. Transgender Survey, documenting elevated rates of anxiety, suicidality, and school absenteeism among transgender youth. It also examines the broader legal implications of the Trump administration's actions, pointing to potential violations of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments and Supreme Court precedent set in Bostock v. Clayton County.

"As a young researcher and advocate for equality, I feel the urgency of this work deeply," said Tah'Jay Gonzalez, a Youth Policy Scholar with The Think Tank. "This is not just data. It's a reflection of the harm endured by LGBTQ+ youth every day. This brief shows how evidence must drive the fight for justice and dignity for all."

In response, the brief offers a series of targeted policy recommendations across four domains: restoring federal civil rights protections, empowering state and local policy innovation, building inclusive coalitions, and investing in data and accountability systems.

"We cannot allow executive orders and regulatory changes to undermine decades of civil rights progress," said Dr. Edward Summers, Co-Executive Director of The Think Tank. "This brief is both a warning and a roadmap. It provides the scholarship, the analysis, and the strategic direction needed to protect LGBTQ+ youth and uphold democratic principles."

The full policy brief and visual summary are available for download at www.dredward-summers.com